


On the Run

by Statari



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-01
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-10 19:58:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1163872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Statari/pseuds/Statari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short story about Hawke and Anders on the run from the Templars after the events at the end of the game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Run

**Author's Note:**

> In the past I've been mighty impressed at how REAL fanfiction makes the characters seem, so this is an effort to do the same. I had more I wanted to add to this but it's not working out for me. So now it's just a short story minus all the angst I'd wanted to include.

The snow was up to their knees now and growing deeper with every passing minute. Hawke dug her nose further into her scarf. The snow gave out beneath her feet. She tipped forward and then slipped back down the slope. A strong hand on her elbow steadied her. Hawke regained her footing and stood up straight, unwinding the scarf from around her face. It was bitterly cold but she needed to breathe the air. The heavy, wet breaths she took beneath the heavy fabric were starting to make her feel lightheaded. 

A broad hand cupped her cheek. The skin was warm but at its touch a trickle like cool water slid down her neck and pooled in her chest. Her lungs cleared so she could breathe a little better. Her headache receded so she could think straight.

"The fever's getting worse," Anders murmured.

"I know," Hawke breathed, "but we can't stop."

She turned back to the hill and took a few slow and haggard steps. The going was difficult. Her legs shook whenever she stood still and she knew they should stop but they couldn't afford to lose the time.   
Anders was just behind her saying, "I could go first and melt the snow."

"No," Hawke replied. She eyed the spell wisp bobbing up and down a few paces ahead of them. It glowed a faint blue, flickering and pulsing every few minutes. Its primary purpose was to light the way but it had begun to indicate Ander's mana level combined with his concentration. As Anders grew more and more tired, expending his energy to keep them both physically capable of putting one foot in front of the other, the wisp got fainter and more irregular.

"I need you to keep the fever down," she told him. It was true, at least. They were getting incredibly low on lyrium and right now her illness was threatening to leave her completely incapacitated. It was more important to keep her conscious than to clear the snow in front of them.

"I could-"

"No!"

Anders grew quiet and there was nothing for several minutes except the crunch of their boots in the snow and the huffs of their heavy breathing.

"I'm sorry," Hawke amended. She stopped and spared a look up toward the dark treetops.  
"We need to rest soon," Ander's informed her. "If we keep going like this, it won't matter if the Templars catch up because we'll both be dead."

Hawke looked behind them, out over the treetops in the gulley behind them. The moon was hidden behind the clouds and the only light out there was a single glowing speck. It was orange and it flickered through the branches but remained steadily in place, unmoving. It was the light of the Templar's fire. They had bunkered down for the night near the bottom of the pass. 

"They're not going anywhere anytime soon. Not in this weather and not in that armor."

"I know that," Hawke sighed. "We can probably afford a few hours of sleep." Hawke pushed the hood of her coat back a bit so she could see past the fur lining to peer into the darkness. Beyond the small circle of spell-light, the spiky treetops cut against a dark grey sky. The snow clouds were illuminated from behind by a hidden full moon and it cast everything in a pale light. The cliff that ran parallel to the mountain pass broke from the trees a short while ahead at a crest in the hill. They were not at the top of the pass just yet, probably a little under a day from that, but the high ground would give them an advantage by allowing them to see the Templar's progress and the rock face would provide protection against the storm. "There." Hawke pointed at the dark shadow of the protruding cliff. "We can shelter there for a while."

The cliff face was further away than it had originally appeared. It took them another hour at least to reach it and another twenty minutes beyond that to find an overhang that would be suitable to set their tent up beneath. By the time the tent was set up and the bedroll laid out, Hawke was shivering and about to collapse. Anders helped her into the bedroll and disappeared for a moment, taking the spell wisp with him. She laid in the dark, watching her breath condense in the cold air. Tremors shook through her body.

As a little girl she and Bethany would have to hide beneath haystacks in the field behind the hut at night to keep Bethany and her magical aura out of range of the Templars that patrolled past. She had learned, on those cold nights of approaching winter that she could control the way her body felt the chill if she could control the shivers. After a few minutes she would force her body to stop shivering for a minute or two and came to the conclusion that it wasn't that cold outside. She tried that same technique now but couldn't stop the shaking, not even for a little bit. She was a little afraid her mind would rattle out of her head if it didn't stop soon. 

But before any such thing could happen, a flicker of light against the fabric of the tent and Anders was back. The wisp was barely there now and a pale blue instead of a warm orange. It disappeared entirely before Anders had even knelt down on the bedroll.

"What did you do?" Hawke asked. She winced at the accusation in her tone. She had meant for it to be a curious and concerned question but her exhaustion seemed to have stripped away even her vocal control.

"I laid a few wards." 

With the spell wisp extinguished and the light of the moon blocked by clouds and rock, Hawke could not see Anders but she could hear him rustling around and eventually felt cold air as he pulled back the top cover and slid in beside her. 

She threaded her arms beneath his and nudged her knees between his thighs as soon as he appeared beside her. She buried her face in his chest as she sought out his warmth and soaked it up. His broad palm pushed her matted hair off her cheek and away from her neck. It was soothing but it lacked the same cooling tingle of healing magic that his touch had almost exclusively become associated with these days. Part of her wanted that relief from the burning beneath her skin but she could not bring herself to ask. Anders was close to completely spent. She could see it in his eyes. What little strength he had left was being used to keep the wards in place during the night. If she asked, he would release the wards and heal her. As a result, though, he would stay awake all night in order to keep watch. It had happened at least once before in past couple weeks, once that she knew of at least. 

Their safety and the rejuvenation of sleep were far more important than her comfort.

"How are you holding up?" Anders whispered in the dark.

The shiver that raced over her skin was not the product of her illness for a change. The scrape of Ander's unshaven chin was comforting and if the sudden rush of heat hadn't been enough to make the world spin, she would have been tempted to take it further. As it was, she could barely muster the energy to reply to his words, much less his actions.

"I could be better," she responded dryly. 

Anders kissed her forehead. "Get some sleep. I'll watch over you."

Hawke pulled her nose away from the ruffle of chest hair beneath the lacing of his tunic and tried to look him in the eye. Her eyes had finally adjusted but that only meant she could see the faintest outline of his face. "I'll sleep only if you do," she said forcefully. "You need more sleep, not more lyrium," she added when his eyes strayed to the pack by the tent flap. "You can't keep going on rejuvenation alone."

Anders sighed and his face ducked. "I'm afraid," Anders admitted, his voice rough and strained. He cleared his throat. "I'm afraid that if I go to sleep now, I won't wake up before the Templars catch up with us. I'm so tired."

"The wards-"

"The wards are enough to warn us but only in time for us to prepare for a fight. We're in no condition to fight and we'd never get away in time if we woke up to the wards."

Hawke kissed him on the lips then. "Sleep," she murmured. "Those Templars will have a tough time of it in their massive armor. It would take them another day and half to get up the pass if they left now. But they know the value of rest as well. We have time."

In the end, Anders gave in. He had to. The creeping exhaustion that had been growing ever since they fled the city of Kirkwall had caught up to him now that he had stopped moving. The worried wrinkles in his face smoothed out and his eyes softened before they finally closed and he fell asleep.  
Hawke was not far behind.

 

She awoke several hours later because she was having trouble breathing. She was lying on her back and Ander's head was resting on her shoulder, one of his arms slung around her waist. But his weight, half resting on top of her, was not the reason she was having difficulty. He was a warm cocoon, better than any blanket could have been on a night like this. There was a tickle in the back of her throat and a rattle deep in her chest. Her breathing was congested from her illness. 

Hawke held her breath as she slid out from beneath Ander's arm and gently laid his head down. She slipped on her socks and boots without tying them and then pulled her heavy, fur-lined coat on before stepping outside into the cold. 

Dawn had broken. A thin and wavering light streamed through the clouds above. It was still snowing but it had slowed to small, intermittent flakes rather than the steady rate of the night before. All was quiet but Hawke was on alert anyway, wary of Templars that could be lying in wait. She waded through the snow away from the cliff face. Their trail from the night before was almost entirely filled in with snow. If they were lucky, the snow would pick up again and cover them completely by the time they reached the other side of the pass. Right now they could take only one direction, up and over, but once they got through they would make a decision and they could use a bit of secrecy and stealth.

Hawke stood in the middle of the path and looked down the hill the way they'd come. Into the distance, near the bottom of the pass, she could see a column of smoke rising from the trees and dissipating in the atmosphere. The Templars' fire. What she could not be sure of, however, was whether or not the Templars were still around it. If they were, she could let Anders sleep a little longer but there was every possibility that the fire was a decoy. They could be on their way now.

She wished she could have thought of this last night but the reason she hadn't thought of it was also the reason she'd needed the rest and the same went for Anders. 

He mumbled incoherently when she shook his shoulder to wake him up. She shook him again but he rolled over and buried his face in the bedroll, grumbling something about fleas.

"Anders," she said, shaking him a little bit harder this time. "Anders wake up, it's time to go."

His blue eyes were muggy and unfocused when he rolled over. "What?"

"It's time to go, the sun is up."

Anders was slow at first as he came out of a very deep sleep far too soon. He struggled with his robes and with their gear but his motions became more sure with every second as he regained his wits. They had their gear fully fastened behind them and their packs upon their backs ready to go when Ander's turned to her. "Are you feeling better?"

As he spoke, a deep shudder ran through her body, reminding her that, even though she had rested, she was far from healthy. Anders saw this in her and pulled off his glove. He reached bare fingers toward her cheek but she pulled away at the last second before he made skin-to-skin contact. 

"Save your strength," she advised him. "I'll be fine for now."

And she was. Despite the heat beneath her collar and the nausea that threatened to knock her over, they made excellent time. Their legs felt sore in a way they hadn't been before, thanks to their rest, but they had slightly more energy and far more awareness.

It took them a total of two days to reach the bottom of the pass on the other side. They moved a little more slowly as time wore on and the smoke from the fire that indicated the Templars advanced upon them a little every day. They probably had Circle mages with them and enough lyrium and stamina droughts to sustain everyone in the party. But no matter, the snow had picked up again, falling heavily enough to cover their tracks fully in an hour or so and it was time to make a decision.  
"Now what?" Anders complained.


End file.
